The UFC 119 Drug Tests All Negative

Added on Oct 12, 2010 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

The Indiana Gaming Commission released the Drug Test Results today from UFC 119, and all the tests came back negative. Frank Mir, Mirko Crocop, Ryand Bader, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Sean Sherk, Chris Lyttle, Melvin Guillard, C.B. Dollaway, and Matt Mitrione were the tested fighters.

All the fighters were tested for Drugs of Abuse, as well as Performance Enhancement Drugs. The Drugs of Abuse tests look for drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, meth-amphetamines, and other highly addictive drugs. The PED category covers the anabolic steroids, as well as other drugs that could enhance ones fighting ability. All the tests were done via urinalysis from samples taken pre, and post fight.

The tests depend on the state the event is taking place is, and what the commission there requires, but most states only test the main/co-main event fighters, and any other fighter who has tested positive in the past. In the case of the latter, Sean Sherk tested positive for steroids after a champion fight he was a part of. It should also be noted, that most states seem to be testing more and more fighters, but some states seem to be ok with just making the “threat” of testing. Texas would fall into this category, as the last Strikeforce card that took place there, none of the fighters were tested at all.

Drug tests are becoming a prevalent issue in most sports these days, but in Mixed Martial Arts it was drawn into the fore front again when Chael Sonnen tested positive for hight levels of testosterone in 2 urine samples before his UFC 117 title fight with Anderson Silva. Chael fought an unbelievable fight where he controlled the middleweight Champ for more than four and a half rounds. With less than two minutes left in the bout he was forced to tap via a triangle choke, and subsequently lost the fight.

The positive test was a big deal for a few reasons. One of them being that this was a highly anticipated fight, and was as high profile as it gets. The UFC really got behind the card, and promoted it really well. Another one was the fact that this was a fight of the year candidate until the tests came back, but many writers now feel this test taints the way the fight went down, and no longer give it that status. However, the main reason this was so shocking is because of the pre-fight hype that Sonnen took part in. Anytime someone put a mic in front of his mouth he was saying something disparaging about his opponent, or his opponents coach. The one remark that stood out wasn’t about either though. Chael went on a rant on a MMA podcast where he said highly insensitive things about one time training partner Lance Armstrong. He said something to the effect that Lance gave himself testicular cancer by taking steroids during his cycling career, and had himself to blame. He later denied making the comment, even when sports journalist Jim Rome played him the audio of himself making the idiotic remarks.

It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, will be tested at UFC 120 coming up this Saturday night. While its good news the UFC is expanding into multiple countries, most countries in Europe do NOT have athletic commissions. This means, in essence, the UFC sanctions the event themselves. This also means they will be conducting the random drug screenings, as the UFC has done in the past, and the fights will be under the unified rules of MMA.